LIMA, Peru - President Alan Garcia hailed an agreement with Switzerland's Xstrata Copper for a $4.2 billion copper project in southern Peru, calling it the "contract of the century." (...) Xstrata said in a press release that "ore will be mined at a rate of 51.1 million tons per annum from three open pit mines (initially Ferrobamba, then Chalcobamba and Sulfobamba pits) and processed in a 140,000-ton-per-day sulphide grinding/flotation concentrator."

ROME - Enel Green Power, the renewable energy unit of Enel Group, was awarded three wind-energy projects in Brazil via an auction, the Italian utility said in a statement Friday. The three wind farms - Cristal, Primavera and Sao Judas, each with installed capacity of 30 MW - will generate more than 390,000 megawatt-hours annually, or enough to meet the electricity demand of approximately 245,000 Brazilian homes, and avoid the emission of around 270,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, Enel Group said.

LA PAZ - Bolivian President Evo Morales' government plans to invest $450 million in a project to produce lithium carbonate and potassium chloride on a large scale, the head of the evaporitic resources office of the Comibol state mining corporation said.

Mexico: Prof. José Woldenberg in a recent conference on the democratic transition in Mexico noted that nobody has presented any evidence that Calderón's victory was artificially engineered: The IFE commited mistakes" - "I emphasize, mistakes, not fraud" - Woldenberg dixit.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (GINA) -- As Guyana moves closer to realising its hydro-electric potential, developments in oil and gas exploration augur well for the future of the nation's energy sector. (...) according to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), there are four companies licenced to undertake exploratory work in Guyana; Exxon-Mobil, REPSOL/YPF, Century Guyana Limited and CGX Energy Incorporated (Inc) and outlined that there are large areas in the Atlantic Ocean and Takutu Basin, available for investment for oil exploration. Equipment is currently in the Rupununi to drill for the Takutu Gas Company, in 2011. REPSOL/YPF will also endeavour to commence the drilling of a well in the first quarter of 2011.

Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves is accusing two US businessmen of engaging in a smear campaign to destabilise his Government. (...) According to Gonsalves, the US citizens, Dave Copps, a dot.com millionaire, who owns Pure Discovery Corporation, and Blake Burris of Dynamo Labs are working with the NDP to make false claims about St Vincent and the Grenadines. He said Copps owns a house in Bequia, one of the St Vincent Grenadines, and worked previously for the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Gonsalves said they have mounted a campaign called "Save Democracy for just $5."